The following abbreviations that may be found in the specification and/or the drawing figures are defined as follows:    3GPP third generation partnership project    ACK acknowledge    aGW access gateway    BS base station    BW bandwidth    C-Plane control plane    CQI channel quality indicator    CS cyclic shift    DL downlink (eNB towards UE)    eNB E-UTRAN Node B (evolved Node B)    EPC evolved packet core    E-UTRAN evolved UTRAN (LTE)    FDMA frequency division multiple access    LTE long term evolution of UTRAN (E-UTRAN)    LTE-A LTE-advanced    MAC medium access control (layer 2, L2)    MM/MME mobility management/mobility management entity    NACK negative acknowledge    Node B base station    OC orthogonal cover    OFDMA orthogonal frequency division multiple access    O&M operations and maintenance    PDCP packet data convergence protocol    PHY physical (layer 1, L1)    PRB physical resource block (180 kHz)    PUCCH physical uplink control channel    PUSCH physical uplink shared channel    RB resource block    RLC radio link control    RRC radio resource control    RRM radio resource management    RS reference signal    S-GW serving gateway    SC-FDMA single carrier, frequency division multiple access    SNR signal-to-noise ratio    SR scheduling request    UE user equipment, such as a mobile station or mobile terminal    U-Plane user plane    UL uplink (UE towards eNB)    UTRAN universal terrestrial radio access network
A communication system known as evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN, also referred to as UTRAN-LTE or as E-UTRA) is currently under development within the 3GPP. As presently specified the DL access technique will be OFDMA, and the UL access technique will be SC-FDMA.
One specification of interest is 3GPP TS 36.300, V8.2.0 (2007-09), “3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Access Network (E-UTRAN); Overall description; Stage 2 (Release 8),” incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
FIG. 1 reproduces FIG. 4 of 3GPP TS 36.300 V8.2.0, and shows the overall architecture of the E-UTRAN system 2. The E-UTRAN system 2 includes eNBs 3, providing the E-UTRAN user plane (PDCP/RLC/MAC/PHY) and control plane (RRC) protocol terminations towards the UE (not shown). The eNBs 3 are interconnected with each other by means of an X2 interface. The eNBs 3 are also connected by means of an S1 interface to an EPC, more specifically to a MME by means of a S1 MME interface and to a S-GW by means of a S1U interface (MME/S-GW 4). The S1 interface supports a many-to-many relationship between MMEs/S-GWs and eNBs.
The eNB hosts the following functions:                functions for RRM: RRC, Radio Admission Control, Connection Mobility Control, Dynamic allocation of resources to UEs in both UL and DL (scheduling);        IP header compression and encryption of the user data stream;        selection of a MME at UE attachment;        routing of User Plane data towards the EPC (MME/S-GW);        scheduling and transmission of paging messages (originated from the MME);        scheduling and transmission of broadcast information (originated from the MME or O&M); and        a measurement and measurement reporting configuration for mobility and scheduling.        
Two documents of particular interest to the ensuing discussion are 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 Meeting #51bis, R1-080035, Sevilla, Spain, Jan. 14-18, 2008, Agenda item: 6.1.4, Source: Samsung, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Panasonic, TI, Title: Joint proposal on uplink ACK/NACK channel ization (incorporated by reference, and referred to hereafter as R1-080035), and TSG-RAN WG1 #51bis, R1-080621, Sevilla, Spain, Jan. 14-18, 2008, Source: Ericsson, Title: Physical-layer parameters to be configured by RRC, (incorporated by reference, and referred to hereafter as R1-080621).
Due to implicit mapping, the ACK/NACK channel on the PUCCH needs to be pre-configured by higher layer signaling (see the section “PUCCH-structure” in R1-080621). This pre-configuration is referred to as ACK/NACK channelization. There is an existing channelization solution for the case where the given RB is used exclusively for ACK/NACK signaling (see R1-080035).
It has also been agreed that the PUCCH resources used for periodic CQI transmission (namely the CS) are semi-statically configured via higher layer signaling. Typically separate PRBs are allocated for ACK/NACK and CQI.
Additionally, it has been decided to support a multiplexing combination where ACK/NACK and CQI channels of different UEs are multiplexed into the same PRB. This combination has been seen as necessary with the smallest bandwidth options of LTE (e.g., 1.4 MHz). In that case it is not economical to have separate PUCCH PRBs for ACK/NACK and CQI due to excessive control signaling overhead. However, while the principle of ACK/NACK channelization has been agreed to, no decision has been made on the mechanism to support a mixed allocation of ACK/NACKs and CQIs in a single PUCCH PRB.
That is, at present there is no agreed upon approach to ACK/NACK channelization in the case where ACK/NACK and CQI from different UEs are multiplexed within the same PRB. Reference can be made to R1-080035 for defining the ACK/NACK channelization to be used on the PUCCH when there are no CQI signals sharing the same RB. The outcome of this channelization arrangement is the staggered-type of ACK/NACK structure, as shown herein in FIG. 3, which reproduces Table 3 from R1-080035.
Reference with regard to the ensuing description may also be made to 3GPP TR 36.211, V8.1.0 (2007-11), 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Physical Channels and Modulation (Release 8), incorporated by reference, for a description in Section 5 of the UL physical channels, including the PUCCH and the PUSCH.